Indian-Canadian actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan of ‘Never Have I Ever’ fame will soon be seen in a leading role in the upcoming Disney animated feature film ‘Turning Red’. She will be voicing the spunky character Priya in the coming of age story directed by Oscar-winning director Domee Shi. Speaking in an interview recently, Maitreyi shared her experience bringing the character to life and shared her surprise at how the character resembled her Indian characteristics.
“I remember my first reaction to seeing just a rough sketch of Priya while recording,” Maitrey said. “I was immediately so excited about how similar she looks to me - I'm talking about the bushy hair, the nose piercing, glasses and the slight eye bags from probably staying up way too late the night before! I definitely was not as quiet and cool as Priya is when I was in middle school, but we both are always ready to stick up for a friend.”
Revealing how she got into the character, the actress said, “Sounding excited, sad or angry while also staying monotone is a very fine line to walk. Priya is just someone with a monotone voice, but she still has feelings like every other middle school kid, so keeping that in mind definitely helped. Recording early in the morning also helped to sound monotone! Not a fan of mornings.”
'Turning Red' is touted to be an endearing story of self-acceptance and true friendship as four girls traverse the ups and downs of teenage life. It features the voice cast of Rosalie Chiang as Meilin, Sandra Oh as Ming, Ava Morse as Miriam and Hyein Park as Abby. The film released on Disney+Hotstar on March 11 and will be available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam.
